


And maybe you're not the villain, maybe you are the hero

by cutebutpsyco



Series: Ironstrange Bingo 2019 Fills [20]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, Evil Stephen Strange, F/M, IronStrange Bingo 2019, M/M, Morally Grey Natasha Romanov, Morally Grey Stephen Strange, Multi, Threesome - F/M/M, not for real tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-18
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-16 03:58:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18513445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutebutpsyco/pseuds/cutebutpsyco
Summary: IRONSTRANGE BINGO. FILL: ENEMIES TO LOVERS ||He didn’t change his position and wasn’t surprised when Nat didn’t either, but there was something, in her jade eyes, that had Tony wanting to know more about what she believed was the man’s intent. “His methods might be wrong, but he’s trying to expose how the governments treat enhanced people all over the world. It’s what you, us, had been tried to do since the aftermath of the Accords.”





	And maybe you're not the villain, maybe you are the hero

**Author's Note:**

> Again in a rush against the clock to post this before the new day starts, oof. That said, this is another IronWidowStrange because I promised you more to come and while I could have used this also for Stephen's bingo, well, I want to write more of this OT3 so nope.  
> I hope you'll like this, and yes, this is weird, I'm sorry, I just can't see evil!Stephen if I give him the MCU canon characterization.
> 
> Nothing belongs to me, un-betad.

“Stark,” Fury brought him back to reality with the sharp sound of his name called in the otherwise silent room. “What do you think?” 

“You have to be more precise, Nicholas,” Carol told him just recently about the circumstances of hers and Fury’s first meeting and Tony wasn’t going to let that slip anytime soon. “What do I think about what?”

“Strange,” Maria Hill filled up. Not so usefully, if Tony could say anything.

“Actually, I find all the mysterious attitude very in character,” Was his reply. “Not useful, but in character.”

“Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme and, apparently, the man behind the disappearance of politics all over the world,” Maria sounded extremely exhausted by Tony’s attitude. 

“Nick’s idea was letting you enter in politics while I go undercover,” Natasha explained. “You’ll probably need another First Lady, though.”

Tony rose an eyebrow, questioning. “I can run for the presidency. Everyone with a PC and Wikipedia will know that my past with NYPD isn’t the clearest, and there’s that little problem in LA.” 

“Just accusation, you could really become the new US president, but we won’t get that far.” 

—

And the point was, people seemed to want Tony Stark as their next president if pools were something to go with. He couldn’t even say why because if he had to guess, he would have admitted that he didn’t give the vibes of a man who would do everything for the people. 

Most of the times, he questioned if people didn’t want him to be the next president just to see what Iron Man could do. Not that it mattered, because, at the end of the day, even if he was going to win, he would have stepped down, but, it didn’t matter how nothing of this was fake, it was terribly funny. 

And the faces of the other Avengers were the cherry on top. He couldn’t really say that it was a farce, something related with Nat’s new undercover mission or what they were working on for Fury, so he just kept promising everyone roles in the case he was going to be elected. 

Though, what he didn’t expect for, was Fury to call him in the middle of the night almost three months after the beginning of the mission. It wasn’t weird for them to debrief every now and then, and Tony had to see Nat leaving for too many missions to know that she was going to come back, eventually. What was weird was that the moment Tony picked up at the other side of the line he heard distressed noises. 

“Stark,” Nick said before the billionaire could say anything. “I’m sending you footage from Mexico City. Apparently, Romanoff is compromised. I called Barton in.”

And that, that was even weirder than the Shield headquarters being in the middle of the chaos. Natasha wasn’t the kind of person who could be manipulated easily, she had years and years of training and missions at her backs and she and Barton were the best agents Shield had ever had. Tony had no idea what to say, but, when a moment later, he saw the video, he had no doubt that Nat was in it. 

Actually, that was the only thing which made sense and he still couldn’t understand what was going on in his girlfriend’s mind: the video was from the President’s house. In the middle of an otherwise empty hallway, something shining and orange appeared out of nowhere and two figures walked out of it. One of those was Nat, the other a tall man in what looked to be robes and a flying cape. They didn’t even take time to shield their faces, walked through the entirety of the hallway and then disappeared into a room. 

“Where did they disappeared?” Tony asked, to no-one in particular even if the phone call was still opened. As an answer, another video followed the first one. This was taken from a bedroom. In a beat of the eyes, Nat was pinning someone against the mattress, legs sprawled over their body and a gun in her hands. The caped man moved his hands and some dark red ropes enveloped someone else. They were probably speaking, but the cameras didn’t have audio so Tony couldn’t understand what was going on. And then, just like they appeared, they were gone.

“The man is Strange, I guess you recognized the other person,” Fury prompted, the moment the video reached its end and Tony suspected that he was looking at it as well. “The people they woke up are the Mexican President and his First Lady. She said nobody saw them coming until she had Romanoff on top of her, a gun pointed at her face.”

“And I suppose our dear First Lady didn’t like the feeling as much as I do,” he couldn’t help to say, even if his tone was more bitter than jokingly. “I’ll reach you, I want to see what you got from Mexico City.”

“I’ll have Barton on this. She doesn’t know we know, yet., probably, and she has certain leverage on you,” Fury cut him short. “Maybe that’s the reason why Strange didn’t kill her. He can use her to get to you.”

“So you are sending Clint? AKA Nat’s best friend forever?” Irony filled Tony’s voice. He knew it didn’t sound clear at all, and he also knew that Fury almost never said anything. But that was the man’s game and Stark was more than intentioned to change it. “I’m not exactly asking for permission, Fury.”

He landed around half an hour later in the middle of Texas, rapidly ignoring the young agent who tried to stop him at the entrance of the new Shield headquarters after the falling of the Triskelion. His smirk was enough to let him in or, better, Friday hacking into their system and letting Tony pass was enough, while the young agent could just look at him surprised. 

From that on, he just had to listen to his AI’s voice in his earpiece that was giving him all the indications to reach the Director. Telling that the headquarters were a mess was an understatement. The video was still playing in one of the biggest screens and there were at least four analysts working at it. Barton wasn’t in the facility yet, though, which gave Tony enough time to try to change Fury’s mind.

“Stark, what are you doing here?” The man asked, even if Tony knew that he wouldn’t have been standing in that room if the other didn’t want him to be there. 

“I’m going instead of Clint. The man retired, let him enjoy his old life.”

Probably Clint’s desire to spend time with his family was another lie to cover up some missions from Shield, but from what Tony knew, he had been spending more time with Laura and their children, recently, and the last thing he wanted was to force the other man again into the roaster. “That will blow your cover. This is on Barton.”

At that moment, a distress sound went off all over the screens room and nick bent over an agent’s shoulder, looking at the new alert flashing on her computer. “Is that…?”

“President Ellis’s upstate estate, sir,” The agent answered and that was all the explanation Tony needed. He rushed toward the exit hearing Fury’s steps behind him on the metallic floor. It was clear that, now, he was up. 

“Stark, we need Strange alive,” Fury reminded him, a moment before the Iron man suit covered completely his body and he flew out from the secret base in the middle of the desert. 

“Fri, bring me the stream from Ellis’s estate,” The video appeared on HUB. “Zoom out, and give me thermal-vision,” In front of him, the entire extent of president Ellis’s proprietary shined in black and white, with three different heat sources which were moving toward the ones which Tony suspected belonged to the sleeping family. “One is Strange, the other is Nat, who the hell is orange number three? Cameras on the populated hallway.”

The vision shifted again while Friday alerted him that he was closer to the house. The new feed in his helmet was pretty much useless, considering that the figures that were moving in the empty hallway were just black shadows against the night. He didn’t have time to think about a quiet plan, so Tony just broke through the closest window to the hallway knowing that the noise of shattered glass had probably alerted someone. It was for the better. They could wake up the presidential family and bring them out of the house. 

A moment later, he was facing his girlfriend and, apparently, nobody else. Whoever the third person was, Tony couldn’t see them, and Strange was nowhere to be seen as well. He didn’t even know what to think, but a moment later he was turning himself toward his girlfriend, propulsor high and ready to hit her. Nat matched his pose with her gun. 

“Tony, stop! Listen to me, he’s right!” She said, and Tony knew that he rose an eyebrow sceptically. Nat wasn’t stupid, and she trained with Bucky, she knew how to resist to brainwashing, but there she was, in front of him, telling Tony that this Strange guy who kidnapped politicians was right. Nobody knew what happened to the disappeared men, nobody knew which was the reason behind the Sorcerer’s actions considering that he never took control of the Country after its leader’s disappearance. It was weird, maybe he didn’t want to rule the world, but what did he want, then? 

He didn’t change his position and wasn’t surprised when Nat didn’t either, but there was something, in her jade eyes, that had Tony wanting to know more about what she believed was the man’s intent. “His methods might be wrong, but he’s trying to expose how the governments treat enhanced people all over the world. It’s what you, us, had been tried to do since the aftermath of the Accords.”

“This doesn’t justify him, and Ellis did nothing against enhanced individuals. It was all Ross’s do-” And then a thought stoke him. He had been so stupid. “Wait? You are not here for Ellis, aren’t you?”

And then Tony found himself wrapped in web fluid all while the other two figures appeared in the hallway. He knew far too well the voice that said: “Sorry, Mr Stark,” and then he was falling. 

His back hurt something soft the moment he stops to fall into the dark void that opened under his feet in the hallway of President Ellis’s upstate house, and that was the weirdest thing that happened to him that night. Because he was sure that Strange, after having brainwashed the two most important people in his life, was going to kill him. Not to be teleported - or whatever it was - in what looked like a bedroom, in front of Peter, Natasha and Strange himself.

Tony tried to move and to get up from the bed, and he found himself able to do that. There were no restraint, nothing created with the aim to keep him there, and nothing similar to the shining red ropes that had tightened the Mexican President in the tape he saw at Shield headquarters. His surprise should have been well visible on his face because Strange stepped closer, hands raised how to prove him he wasn’t holding any weapon. 

“Did you brainwashed them?” He asked, ready to jump up and protect Nat and Peter from this man. Tony and magic had never mixed well. “How long-”

“Tony, I’m not brainwashed,” Nat’s voice was calm, comforting, and Tony hated that it sounded so much as the one of the woman he loved. She wasn’t, she couldn’t be. “It’s complicated, and Stephen will tell you everything, but there are people who need your help.”

And the point was, listening to Strange, and Tony tried not to think about the fact that Nat called him Stephen, his words made sense. Even if he looked like the leader of a cult, even if he used Peter to get to him, even if… Tony was looking at videos and data, clinical records of enhanced human beings being tortured by governments trying to find a way to replicate their genome, to create other Steves, other Peters, other Bruces, going so far to look for a way to create Thors and Lokis on top of everything. It was crazy, human body wasn’t made for that. 

Tony felt a hand on his shoulder once that he saw Nat’s name in one of those files. He couldn’t even read further. She was used as the living proof that the Red Room project was a success and the moment Stark saw that, he couldn't bring himself to continue to read what it was written in that report from Russia. 

“That’s what convinced her,” Strange whispered. “She told me you weren’t really running for president, that it was Shield plan to capture me the moment the campaign was over. Nat brought Peter in this. She knew you would have listened to him if you listen to anyone. I didn’t brainwash her, Stark, it was her idea. An extremely clever one.”

“She’s extremely clever,” Tony couldn’t help but answer, chewing his lower lip. “I’ll do it. I’ll run for being President, for real, and we will expose this to the public.”

Strange nodded, and a bright smile appeared on his lips. At that moment, Nat walked into the room that had become Tony’s in the past couple of days since Strange brought him there. He still wasn’t allowed outside so he had no idea of where there was, but if that smile meant something, maybe he could get to see his surroundings soon. 

“Oh, did I interrupted something?” The woman asked, smirking at Tony who realized he was leaning too close to Strange, at that moment. There was a weird tension between the Sorcerer and Nat, a tension that Tony detected since the first moment, and in the few days he spent there he couldn’t deny that it was sort of overwhelming, but in a nice way. 

Tony didn’t trust the other man, but the fact that Nat seemed to do it was comforting. “Tony will help us,” Strange said, matter of factly, winking at the both of them. 

“Since when are we first name bases?” Stark asked, instead of the billion questions which were running in his mind. 

“Well, I hope we will get there, sooner or later,” The man said. Natasha rolled her eyes to the ceiling, but it took Tony a couple of months to understand what the man meant. 

Though he did it, while they were celebrating his victory as US President and he saw Nat and Stephen making out in the middle of the room where all their friends were gathered. And, maybe, Tony had always suspected that Nat had sex with the targets of her undercovers missions, but, for once, he was more than happy of that. It wasn’t a mystery that he and Stephen had been flirting, and he knew far too well that his First Lady wasn’t going to refuse the opportunity to extend their relationship to the Sorcerer Supreme.

**Author's Note:**

> Give me ~~validation~~ kudos and comments!
> 
>  **wanna say 'hi'? do you have a prompt for me?** find me on [tumblr](https://ironstrange-is-the-endgame.tumblr.com/).  
> find my entire ironstrange bingo card on [dreamwidth](https://myrcellabaratheon.dreamwidth.org/3827.html) and [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/posts/511160).


End file.
